Aspasia

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

Aspasia fl. c. 440 B.C. Greek courtesan and lover of Pericles who was noted for her wisdom, wit, and beauty.

Etymologies

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Examples

Hastings, whom Congreve calls Aspasia -- "an effusion so full of enthusiasm for the moral graces, and worded with an appearance of sincerity so cordial, that we can never read it without thinking it must have come from Steele."

Whether this will ultimately prove for the better or the worse, it would be a bold man who should dare say; there is at least one thing left to desire in it -- i. e., that the synonym of "Aspasia," which serves so often to designate in journalistic literature these

"There were a few wives there — the more adventurous kind, with husbands pecked almost to death — two Claudias, and a lady in a mask who insisted on being called Aspasia, but who I know very well is Crassus Orator’s cousin Licinia — you remember, I used to sleep with her occasionally?"

"And I should like them, if I believed they would make the Grecian women something _better_ than mere domestic slaves," said Philothea; "but such as Aspasia will never raise women out of the bondage in which they are placed by the impurity and selfishness of man.

“And I should like them, if I believed they would make the Grecian women something better than mere domestic slaves,” said Philothea; “but such as Aspasia will never raise women out of the bondage in which they are placed by the impurity and selfishness of man.

Two millennia earlier, Aspasia, a female philosopher and courtesan, and a central figure in Athenian life, plied her wits, allure, and influence with equal determination, standing with Perikles at the center of vehement opposition to his vision of building the most exquisite monuments the world had ever seen.